Can anyone give me a quick side by side comparison between the new tablet and the NookColor? Is it mainly just the speed and power of the processor or are there new capabilities the tablet will have that the NC does not?

Is there any way for a current NC to be upgraded to be identical w/ the Nook Tablet w/ "Nook OS" aside from the microphone & possibly speaker issues?

Or are there truly hardware changes inside the case?

I ask as my NC will only be 5months old when the Tablet is released - and unless I can get landscape reading options, & someway to scoot my downloads into a "my books" folder for when I'm on the road w/o a computer handy, only WiFi connection handy.

@TNT: No way to tell until folks get hands-on with the new device how the sound quality is.

I am not hoping for much, because the speaker placement and grille are identical; it seems to me that BN missed an opportunity to revise that placement in this design, which is too bad, given that many of us use cases for our NCs.

@VA: yes, if the software platform is the same, having Netflix available to both makes sense.

Until the moment you add in entertainment industry lawyers, at which point common sense, along with the fourth, fifth, tenth and 14th amendments to the constitution all go away rather quickly, except as far as they apply to the industry itself.

That said, it seems that the entertainment industry has had time to stress test the Netflix distribution model and is satisfied that it is not trivial, even on a device running lots of custom software, to use Netflix to steal content, and so we have the promise that Netflix will be available and supported on the NC.

The NOOK Tablet does support reading in landscape mode and a slightly improved speakers and much better software for sound. The videos on the NOOK Tablet will be a 100 times better then on NOOK Color because of the hardware and software integration. For example, it will support up to 1080p. I have seen the video quality and you won't be dissapointed. Also, they teamed up with Netflix to have it integrated to the device which means it works great on the tablet and there are features built in to the tablet where you can see what you were playing last and then actually click on it and it will load you back where you were. Now the NOOK Color will get a O.S. improvement like the one on NOOK Tablet, but it will not support all the features. There will also be apps only capable on NOOK Tablet. I played with NOOK Tablet for about a hour and it is amazing and I have owned a NOOK Color since day 1.

This is incorrect. The NT weighs 14.1 oz, vs. 15.8 for the NC (from the official B&N website). While a one and a half+ ounce weight trim is nothing to sneeze at (kachoo!), it's not 30%. That's actually only 10.8% lighter.

I suspect their confusion was based on a different comparison, where the NT is... "1/3 lighter than the leading tablet". Where the leading tablet would presumably be one of the iPads.

To me, Nook Tablet is essentially a beef-up NookColor. Faster and more storage. A big feature for me is the addition of mic. I think it should be called NookColor 2 as it is essentially a second generation of NookColor. Calling it a tablet is a stretch though. I wish it came with front-facing camera, TV-OUT (as it already support full HD video playback) and a digitzer pen support. Then it would deserve to be called a tablet.

If I haven't had a NookColor, I would buy NT. But since I have already an NC, my next device would probably be a full tablet like the HTC Flyer which has all of the above features.

I have a nook color and I am also annoyed that after just purchasing it a new improved version comes out. It doesn't sound as though there are enough differences for me to go out and buy a tablet. I think I'll just hang on to my nook color for a while. I can purchase a factory refurbished tablet for $99 but don't see enough to entise me to buy even at that price.

I have a nook color and I am also annoyed that after just purchasing it a new improved version comes out. It doesn't sound as though there are enough differences for me to go out and buy a tablet. I think I'll just hang on to my nook color for a while. I can purchase a factory refurbished tablet for $99 but don't see enough to entise me to buy even at that price.

The improved version of the nook color was the nook tablet, which came out a year ago.

my biggest is the wifi capabilities, can the TAB access the web on like a 3G network (or similar) or is it still like the NC where you need to have a wireless router connection to get online?

my NC is under a year and it annoys me so much when new stuff comes out like this. i wouldn't mind paying a few extra bucks to DL the feature onto my NC, and not paying full price for a whole new device.

Roochie, the differences once the 1.4 update arrives may be a non issue for most color users. Unless you want the mic, play a lot of games or watch a lot of movies there is little difference. I have both devices and the biggest difference I noticed was in how certain processor intensive games like lets play golf run. I couldn't compare movies yet but expect the tablet to be better at this. I believe they run at a higher resolution as well. The screens are very similar, the display has a slightly brownish tint, perhaps this is easier on the eyes or a power saving measure.

> I couldn't compare movies yet but expect the tablet to be better at this. I believe they run at a higher resolution as well. <

This is correct. Assuming you have higher rez (HD) content to start with (i.e., better than DVD), the NT will render at 1024x576 (downconverting if necessary). Which will be sharper than the 854x480 maximum that the NC then scales up to 1024x576. The net increase in detail possible on the NT is about 44%.

If you're starting with DVD content, then there will be no difference.

- Mark

(For the same reasons, the NT video can be sharper, clearer, and more detailed than the KF. Something else that many reviewers miss is that if you have HD videos (in a supported format like MP4, not MPG2), you can play them immediately, without having to spend time converting them first. That makes it vastly more convenient.)

I have a NookColor. It is supposed to have resolution of 1024x600, or at least that was given as the resolution in a comparison of tablets I saw online. Today I was trying to load and play some mp4 files for the first time. I kept getting a message that they could not be played (even though Nook Color supports mp4). I chatted with B&N about this and they told me that the maximum resolution I could play is 854x480. This sure doesn't correlate with the advertised resolution of 1024x600 for the Nook Color. Not only that, but the device is unable to decode higher resolution files and I was told to decode them myself prior to loading them into the Nook.

When I decode my HD files down to 600x480 they look like garbage. Now you're saying here that the Nook Color then scales up to 1024x576. Isn't this rather lossy? I lost a lot of detail by decoding down to VGA resolution and then Nook Color takes the low resolution result and only makes it bigger. Now I've got a file which is full of fuzzy places and is not much of a pleasure to watch. What makes sense about this?

Not sure of all the technical jargon as far as the screen resolution vs video resolution goes. However, I have had excellent results with H.264 (MP4) files ripped at 854X480. I use Tools4 Movies DVD Catalyst rather than the other converts I have because has optimized setting for the Nook family of e-readers and I do not have to experiment to get the right settings.

I have a NookColor. It is supposed to have resolution of 1024x600, or at least that was given as the resolution in a comparison of tablets I saw online. Today I was trying to load and play some mp4 files for the first time. I kept getting a message that they could not be played (even though Nook Color supports mp4). I chatted with B&N about this and they told me that the maximum resolution I could play is 854x480. This sure doesn't correlate with the advertised resolution of 1024x600 for the Nook Color. Not only that, but the device is unable to decode higher resolution files and I was told to decode them myself prior to loading them into the Nook.

When I decode my HD files down to 600x480 they look like garbage. ....

1024x600 is close to 16:9 aspect ratio (1024x576 is 16:9 exactly). 600x480 is 4:3 aspect ratio.

1024x600 is the resolution of the screen. That is, for instance, why the Nook comics look so sharp on the 7" display, compared to 800x480 resolution screens.

"The device is unable to decode higher resolution files" is what "the maximum resolution I could play" means. The limit is not the screen, its how fast the system can decode files at the highest resolution. The device is perfectly capable is display 1024x600 still images, but if you want to display 1024x576 moving video images, you need more horsepower, which is the Nook Tablet, with its dual core 1GHz processor ~ two processor cores instead of one, and both of them faster than the processor in the Nook Color.

This upgrade in horsepower remains true for the new NT8G, so with a good household WiFi network and a adequate bandwidth internet connection, it can stream Netflix at full resolution ~ that is, it can get video at the next resolution up, 1280x720, and downscale down to 1024x576, on the fly.

I am planning to purchase a Nook real soon. I don't want to exceed $200, so its pretty much either Nook Color or Nook Tablet 8GB.

I would like to load Android via SD card on either one. Main uses - web browsing, reading, watching offline videos (dvd rips from my collection..etc).

Is it worth spending the additional $30 on the Nook Tablet 8GB? Or will a Nook Color rooted and overclocked be good enough for my usage?

Thanks!

web browsing ~ quite noticeable difference. Pages will load faster, and streaming video that are "slideshows" on the NC have a shot at being actual streaming video on the NT.

streaming video ~ NT Netflix app is sharper (if your bandwidth supports it) and it has a native HuluPlus app; NC Netflix app is not as sharp, and there is as of yet no native HuluPlus app.

reading ~ I don't see why you'd notice a difference.

offline videos ~ for DVD rips, the NC would be fine, unless you upscaled as you ripped. If you have higher resolution source, the NT can play 720p HD mp4 files directly, the NC would require conversion down to 480p HD.

For me, its 40% reading, 30% streaming video apps where the video is only 360p anyway, and 30% web browsing, and I bought used (refurbished), so its not really worth it for me, but with a different mix of use it could be easily worth it.

Do you think these differences you mentioned, be minimized by rooting and loading CM7 on the Nook Color as mentioned in earlier posts. I've also read online there are apps that let you tweak with processor performance to have it run higher at 1.2 GHz. - given that the RAM memory is 512MB on both the 8GB Tablet and the Color.

Not sure if I'll be doing this, but trying to find out if CM7 is even worth the effort, and performance benefit, and $$ savings for Color over 8GB Tablet..

Do you think these differences you mentioned, be minimized by rooting and loading CM7 on the Nook Color as mentioned in earlier posts. I've also read online there are apps that let you tweak with processor performance to have it run higher at 1.2 GHz. - given that the RAM memory is 512MB on both the 8GB Tablet and the Color.

Some of the differences would be reduced, some would not.

(1) Whether the NC processor is running at 800MHz or 1.2 GHz, its still a single core, and a dual core 1GHz processor is faster at things like web layout than a single core 1.2GHz processor. Its not quite "like a 2GHz single core", but a process consisting of a lot of little distinct tasks, like web layout, its awfully close.

(2) The greater flexibility of the NT in playing video is built into the hardware ~ the video processor built into the NC processor chip can only handle up to 480p HD in hardware, while the video processor built into the NT processor chip can handle up to 1080p HD in hardware.

So video and/or web browser intensive, definitely an NT with a rooted stock kernal will be noticeably better than the NC, even an overclocked NC. A bunch of apps that think they are tablet apps running on a skinny screen tablet, they'd likely get a similar benefit.

Reading ebooks, reading downloaded newsfeeds, reading email, running apps who thing they are running on a smartphone with an oversized screen ... there could be some delays with the NC that you'd notice if you were constantly switching back and forth between the two, but the difference would be a lot less dramatic.

My main video viewing are mostly with apps from subscription or ad-streaming sites, and since they stream 360p widescreen video, there'd be no big impact on upgrading. But if I were accessing more PC-oriented streaming web video sites, there'd be a much bigger difference.

I have the nook simple I'm grabbing the nook tablet. I do have the kindle fire,it was bought for my 10 yr old which is great for her.... But I discover I love reading in color vs eink..... ( will keep eink for beach lol) The fire has a glare which is bothersome just a bit for reading. I want to read....I figure fifty bucks....it's worth that extra money.

nancybout wrote:I have the nook simple I'm grabbing the nook tablet. I do have the kindle fire,it was bought for my 10 yr old which is great for her.... But I discover I love reading in color vs eink..... ( will keep eink for beach lol) The fire has a glare which is bothersome just a bit for reading. I want to read....I figure fifty bucks....it's worth that extra money.

You mean the $200 Nook Tablet or the $250 Nook Tablet? If I was buying new and had the money, I'd get the $200 Nook Tablet, for the greater flexibility in streaming web sites. But just for reading, I'd get a reconditioned Nook Color for $135 and put the difference into more ebooks.

Are there any apps that take full advantage of the dual core CPU and the extra RAM? Are these reason enough to upgrade from a Nook Color?

That's precisely the question I'm asking myself. I stopped off at my local B&N last night after work to play around with the NT and I'm having a difficult time justifying to myself why I would upgrade to the NT. It's marginally lighter and has slightly better battery life; aside from that, the NC meets all my needs.

Hi Nicole. You Took The Question Right Out Of My Mouth. I Recently Upgraded From Nook Simple Touch To NookColor. And I'd Wondered Why The NC & NT Looked Identical With The Exception Of Their Frame's Covers. Well, I Understand, Per The Booksellers That It's All In The Android Power. 2.2 ForNc & 2.3 For NT. So Not Too Much Difference Nicole.Not Too Much At All. They Are Fun Though. Aren't They?

Hi Nicole. You Took The Question Right Out Of My Mouth. I Recently Upgraded From Nook Simple Touch To NookColor. And I'd Wondered Why The NC & NT Looked Identical With The Exception Of Their Frame's Covers. Well, I Understand, Per The Booksellers,That It's All In The Android Power. 2.2 ForNc & 2.3 For NT. So Not Too Much Difference Nicole.Not Too Much At All. They Are Fun Though. Aren't They?